Thursday, October 21, 2021, Sam Acker

 

Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee, here, with a canine friend to present today's recap.

While our collie friend is excited about the ovine references in the puzzle and in the write up, s/he is not our puzzle setter.  Today, that would be Sam Acker.  I was able to locate a Crossword Corner write up of one of his puzzles from May, 2019 and perhaps there are others.  For today's challenge, Sam has designed what I believe is called a "Designated Squares" puzzle.  Let's start with the reveal:

56 Across:  You may not need a bookmark for one . . . and a hint to this puzzle's circles: PAGE TURNER.  Page turner, of course, being a term for a book that you, or our friend above, just cannot stop reading.

Other than the reveal, there are no theme answers per se.  However, at four locations within the grid we find sets of four circled letters, stacked two on top of two.  Each of these sets contains one each of the letters that spell PAGE.  At each location, start with the P and proceed clockwise and they all spell PAGE.  From top to bottom, the P's also rotate clockwise with the first P in the Northeast, the next in the  Southeast, the next in the Southwest and finally in the Northwest.  They TURN, if you will, both ways.   Clever.  Here is how they appear in the completed grid:

. . . and now for the rest of the clues/answers.  I was going to go with an abbreviated blog post today but thought, "Naaahhh!  We have enough abbreviations in the puzzle."

Across:

1. Wildfire prevention ads, e.g.: Abbr.: PSAS.  Public Service AnnouncemetS (abbr no 1)

5. Short video: CLIP.

9. Valentino classic, with "The": SHEIK.

14. Certain sax: ALTO.  Part of the orchestra got kidnapped last week.  Today, the perpetrators were located and arrested for grand theft ALTO.

15. Cocktail garnish: LIME.  Just ask Kermit.

 

16. Redhead of Bedrock: WILMA.  Wilma Flintstone From the Town of Bedrock

17. Top prize: GOLD MEDAL.

19. Highly skilled: ADEPT.

20. Lab eggs: OVA.  Today's Latin lesson.  In school, my classmates and I used to argue all the time about the plural form of the word for female sex cells.  We'd go on and on and wasted a lot of class time.  Eventually, it was resolved.  Frankly, I'm glad that's OVA.

21. Stereotypical baby "words": GOO GOO GA GA.  Ten letters, six vowels.  Helpful for a constructor.

23. Minimal damage: DENTS.

25. Mag. edition: ISS.  Punt!  An ISSue of a Magazine (abbr no 2)

26. Small but distinctive amount: DASH.    -T

28. Mandatory bet: ANTE.  Gotta' pay to play

29. __ Bar: Apple support service: GENIUS.  At Apple Stores (computer, not fruit) they call the help desk the GENIUS Bar.  A bit of foreshadowing for 55 Across.

32. CIA relative: NSA. (abbr no 3)

33. Homer's "Sailing a Dory," e.g.: SEASCAPE.  Winslow Homer is a famous American landscape (and SEASCAPE) painter.

Sailing A Dory

 

35. Insults, with "on": HATES.  Modern slang, I suppose.

37. __ land: LALA.  A state of mind characterized by its lack of  seriousness and/or unrealistic expectations.    More recently, a motion picture (though the leading l of land would have to have been capitalized in the clue to go there).

38. Word with date or dance: RAIN.  In baseball, do we now have Climate Change makeup dates?

40. Pickle unit: SPEAR.

43. Scottish winds: BAGPIPES.  A bit of word play.

 

Dropkick Murphys - Cadence To Arms

47. Number of "Friends" seasons: TEN.  I didn't know that.  I never watched the show.  I would have clued it as "Ardbeg ____ ".

48. Siesta wrap: SERAPE.  One of today's Spanish lessons.

51. NYC gallery: MOMA.  In New York City (abbr no 4)

52. Where women click on the links?: Abbr.: LPGA.  Really didn't get the "click" part unless the reference is to "really clicking" (doing well). (abbr no 5)

Ladies Professional Golf Association

54. Backing: FOR.  As opposed to opposing

55. Course from a bar: SALAD.  Course, of course, is polysemous.  In this case, a part of a meal.

60. Feminine side: YIN.  YIN / Yang  Taoism  Balance

61. Spawn: BEGET.

62. Square, for one: RECTANGLE.  A square is a RECTANGLE with all sides being of equal length.

64. Place for games: ARENA.  

65. Do some craftwork: KNIT.

Valerie Has Been Busy Recently

66. Troubles: WOES.  Pack 'em up, Joe

 

67. CEO's aides: ASSTS.  Punt.  ASSistanTS (abbr no 6)

68. Italian pronoun: ESSA.  Another of today's language lessons.  In English, ESSA can mean she, her, it, thereon or therefrom.

69. Words in many law firm names: ANDS.  Creative cluing.  

Down:

1. Temples with up-curved roofs: PAGODAS.

Near Chang Rai - 2017 - Photo By MM

2. Resident of Ljubljana, probably: SLOVENE.

Residents of Ljubljana - 2018 - Photo By MM

3. Margaret Mitchell's birthplace: ATLANTA.    She wrote GWTW.

4. Gardener's purchase: SOD.

5. Egyptian queen, familiarly: CLEO.  CLEOpatra (abbr no 7)  Not Liz? 

Photo by 20th Century Fox

6.  Venetian Resort.  LIDO

Hotel Excelsior - Venice, Italy - Lido Beach

7. "Just think!": IMAGINE.  

8. She's behind Harris in the current presidential line of succession: PELOSI.

9. Bravado: SWAG.  Usually, in this context, SWAGger.  SWAG is often clued as the free stuff you might get at a convention. (not the abbreviation for Scientific Wild Ass Guess).

10. Greeting from a sideline, maybe: HI DAD.  Usually, Hi Mom

11. Polished: ELEGANT.

12. Deadlock: IMPASSE.

13. Kit __: KAT.  A candy bar or . . . a bar?

18. Classic British sports cars: MGS.  My friends Mark and Diana recently acquired this 1950 MGTD.  (abbr? We'll give 'em a pass on this one because if you mentioned Morris Garages nobody would know what you were talking about)

22. Pac-12's Beavers: OSU.  Pacific 12 Division of the NCAA (abbr no 8)

24. Where Musk is CEO: TESLA.  SpaceX wouldn't fit.  It could have been clued as Inventor Nikola.

Nikola Tesla

27. Owns: HAS.  Patti PAGE had a Grammy.  Jimmy PAGE HAS two.

29. Gadot of "Wonder Woman": GAL.  GAL Gadot, not some random gal.

30. Org. concerned with PCB's: EPA. (abbr no 9)

31. Mail in a box: SHIP.   Repeating "Noun or verb, verb or noun?" can be a useful cruciverbalist mantra.

34. Pixar film in which Paul Newman voiced a Hudson Hornet: CARS.

36. Jung's inner self: ANIMA.

38. 63-Down genre: RAP.   I was eating some green onions when suddenly I started rhyming everything that I was saying.  Turns out they were RAP scallions.

39. It's just a number, they say: AGE. Don't we all wish that this was, in fact, true.

40. Home of the NHL's Blues: STL.  The National Hockey League's Saint Louis Blues (abbr no 10)

41. Pizza topping: PEPPERS.  Pepperoni would not fit.  Some of us enjoy ground hot pepper sprinkled on pizza.

42. Fascinates: ENGAGES.

43. Scrubby wastelands: BARRENS. 

Rocky Point Barrens, New York

44. 62-Across, for one: POLYGON.  What do they make POLYGONs wear when they're on probation?  Angle monitors.

45. Sent a note to, nowadays: EMAILED.  Perhaps the most acceptable of the E-words we now often find in puzzles.

46. Blue state: SADNESS.  Today, the talking heads use Blue State/Red State to denote political divides.

49. Little newt: EFT.  We often see EFTs and newts in our puzzles.

50. Boxer/actor Mickey: ROURKE.

53. Secret __: AGENT.  Secret SANTA? Nope.  Secret CODES?  Nope.

55. Spanish Mrs.: SRA.  Another of today's Spanish lesson - SenoRA (abbr no 11)

57. Flight sked info: ETAS.  Estimated Time of Arrival S  often land in crossword puzzles.  (abbr no 12)

58. TV series for 18 seasons: NCIS.  Naval Criminal Investigative Services.  A TV series often seen in crossword puzzles and the last of a baker's dozen abbreviations in the puzzle if you don't also count 63 Down. 

59. Jazz diva Jones: ETTA.  ETTA, too, often visits us

61. Sheepish remark?: BAA.  With the previous herding-dog/ovine references, Shaun the Sheep seems appropriate.

63. "Straight Outta Compton" group: NWA.  The rap group.

What color are all of the books in the Library?

Red.

On that note let's turn to a new page . . .

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